…And They Also Make Music - A Conversation with 5 Chester Musicians
Chester is a small town with a huge talent pool. On Sunday, Nov. 16, meet five Chester residents whose primary occupations have nothing to do with music, but who have significantly enhanced their lives by the addition of music making.
Their conversation, …And They Also Make Music, will be a fun opportunity to learn how playing your musical instrument as a sideline to whatever else you choose to do can be rewarding at any age. Their fascinating stories will hopefully inspire youths to keep on playing.
Audience participation is encouraged. The program is free. It begins at 4 p.m. at the Chester Meeting House.
The five Chester musicians are:
Lauren Agnelli
Although by day she brings moments of joy to her nursing home residents as a Recreation Director and strolling musician, Lauren Agnelli might be better known to her Chester neighbors as the musical director of The Small Town Concert Series. She and Matthew Male produced over 60 shows in the tri-town area and Old Saybrook, at the Kate, with local talent that included Dana Takaki, John Williams & the Meadows Brothers. Lauren’s sultry solo CD, Love Always Follows Me, is a torch song tour-de-force. She is a performing songwriter who plays a variety of guitars and ukulele. She looks forward to making more music as well as stepping up her fiction writing in the next phase of her creative life.
Leif Nilsson
Leif played the trumpet in middle school, the guitar in high school and picked up the banjo at 40 years old. He started out with The EXIT SIX Band, then the Side Doors and then Arrowhead as well as the Traditional Irish Band Paddy Whack. He has been hosting the outdoor Concerts in the Garden series at the Spring Street Studio and Gallery for the past 15 years or so.
Leslie Strauss
Leslie has enhanced her career as a real estate broker in Chester by playing fiddle and singing with the Corinthian Jazz Band and the Moving Target Band for nearly 40 years throughout the shoreline area. She has also shared her love of music directing musicals and variety shows for the students at VRHS and Tri Town Youth Services. She began as a classical violinist and expanded her love of music to entertaining and teaching while pursuing her full-time career in real estate - a wonderful blend of work and play.
Leonard (Trip) Wyeth
Trip has been an award-winning architect for nearly 50 years. And he also makes music as an accomplished guitarist with the Corinthian Jazz Band, Moving Target Band and whenever he can. His blending of careers is evident by his property on Maple Street in Chester, where he combines his architectural firm on one floor with his Acoustic Music Shop on the other. He has performed throughout the shoreline and is renowned for his benevolent performances for the Shoreline Soup Kitchen and Tri-Town Youth Services. This combination of creative talents is inspirational.
John Williams
A Chester resident for nearly 35 years, John has performed in a variety of musical groups, spanning jazz, Latin, and rock genres. Although the guitar has been his primary instrument, he has also played drums and bass. For roughly ten years he sang tenor in the choral group Con Brio, and in his twenties he studied classical and jazz guitar, and musical composition. While living in Chester, he has been involved in numerous musical productions, including the benefit fund raisers Sound & Spirit, and Soup & Song, hosted by the United Church of Chester, and Samba Rio, for the BRAYCE nonprofit. Presently he is serving as co-chair of the Robbie Collomore Concert Committee in Chester.
